The trades shortage gets the headlines, but there's an equally urgent crisis at the professional level. The data center industry's 4.7 million jobs span every tier of the workforce — and at the engineering level, the gap between supply and demand is widening fast. According to research covered by Community College Daily, the industry needs tens of thousands of new engineers, designers, and technical specialists that university programs simply aren't producing at scale.
Where the Gaps Are
Commissioning Agents
Commissioning is the final quality gate before a data center goes live — verifying that every system performs as designed under real load conditions. A qualified commissioning agent (CxA) needs deep knowledge of mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and controls systems, plus years of field experience. The Building Commissioning Association estimates fewer than 3,000 certified CxAs operate in the U.S., against demand for 5-10x that number. See our breakdown of CxA vs. CxE roles.
Power Systems Engineers
Designing the electrical infrastructure for a 100MW data center — medium-voltage switchgear, paralleling gear, UPS systems, generator plants, and automatic transfer switches — requires specialized expertise that general electrical engineering programs don't fully cover. Graduates from programs like Georgia Tech ECE and Stanford EE are in extraordinarily high demand, with multiple competing offers before graduation.
Controls and Automation Engineers
Modern data centers run on building management systems (BMS) and programmable logic controllers (PLCs) that monitor and optimize thousands of data points. Controls engineers who can program, commission, and troubleshoot these systems are among the scarcest professionals in the industry. This role sits at the intersection of mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and computer science — a combination few programs explicitly train for.
MEP Design Engineers
Mission critical MEP design requires understanding concurrent maintainability, N+1 redundancy, and fault-tolerance principles that don't appear in standard mechanical or electrical curricula. ASHRAE has published technical committees and standards specific to data centers, but the knowledge often has to be acquired through years of on-the-job training rather than formal education.
Why University Programs Can't Keep Up
The fundamental problem is that "data center engineering" isn't a standard academic discipline. Students graduate with degrees in mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, or construction management — but the data center-specific knowledge (critical power topology, precision cooling, Tier classification standards, and commissioning protocols) is learned on the job.
One notable exception is SMU's Lyle School of Engineering, which offers the only dedicated MS in Datacenter Systems Engineering in the country. The program covers facility design, operations, and management with coursework specifically tailored to mission critical environments. More universities need to follow this model.
See our full ranking of Top 10 Universities Producing Data Center Talent.
The Community College Response
While four-year universities move slowly, community colleges have been remarkably agile. The Uptime Institute has partnered with several institutions to develop data center operations curricula. Programs in Virginia, Texas, and Ohio are producing graduates with hands-on experience in critical power systems, cooling plant operations, and environmental monitoring — exactly the foundational skills the industry needs.
What Employers Should Do
Waiting for the perfect candidate to apply isn't a strategy. Smart employers are: building apprenticeship-to-engineer pipelines within their own organizations, partnering with universities for co-op and internship programs, sponsoring ASHRAE and BCxA certifications for existing staff, and working with specialized recruiters who understand the nuances of data center engineering talent.
